Gift of Living Donation (GOLD)

Increasing living donor rates for African and Caribbean patients with end stage renal disease through home-based education.

This project is targeted at the African and Caribbean communities in North and North West London. The implementation of a home- based educational intervention will involve; renal staff at the Royal Free and North Middlesex Hospitals, African and Caribbean patients on the transplant waiting list and trained volunteers from the same communities.

Patients will be introduced to the initiative during their time at clinic and if interested will be enrolled onto the programme. The ‘at home’ element of the intervention provides a relaxed convenient and non-threatening environment, easier access to more family members greatly increases the potential for constructive decision-making that could lead to more positive outcomes with regards to living donation.

The culturally sensitive home visits will be conducted by trained volunteers who are not only from the same communities as the potential recipients but also have personal experiences of living donation either as donors or living donor recipients, and it is the sharing of these personal experiences with potential donors that is a powerful element of the initiative. This project is led by Dela Idowu (info@giftoflivingdonation.co.uk ).

Project Lead

DELA IDOWU

Dela Idowu is the Executive Director and Founder of Gift of Living Donation (GOLD) an organisation she set up to raise awareness and educate people from the Black community about living kidney donation after she came forward as a potential living donor for her brother who had kidney failure.

She is the author of 'More Than a Match', a book that gives a compelling personal account of her family's struggle to come to terms with kidney failure, dialysis and transplantation, she is the co writer and producer of 'We Are Family' a educational film on living kidney donation from a black family’s perspective.

Dela is a member of the Living Donor Kidney Transplantation 2020 Strategy Implementation Group, a member of Guy's & St Thomas's Organ Donation Committee and Kidney Patient’s Association.

Dela is also the 2014 Pride of Brent Award Winner for her outstanding contribution to the borough of Brent in the area of organ donation.